XP Disgustingly Slow Over Network. Please Help

[Sam Manzella]

I finally decided to use XP on our network figuring "it's time" to start
moving away from Windows 2000. We have about 30 computers with Windows 2000
and to this date, they all work flawlessly.

This is a new computer, Pentium 4, 3.0Ghz, 512MB ram, GIG card, 128MB
video... etc.

Everything seems to work fine locally, and items such as Internet, email,
downloads etc seems to be proportionally fast as the computer is configured.
(meaning it seems as if the NIC is OK)

HOWEVER, when I access folders across our local network, it seems to take
extra long (like 10-15 seconds) to show the files within the folders, and
even after they file icons show up, Windows Explorer sometimes will freeze
for about 10 seconds as well. Even some of our old Pentium II 450MHZ
computers (yes we still have a few of those), will regenerate the files over
the network almost instantly.

I've tried the following:

Turned Firewall off
Set everything to Windows Classic
Change the Display settings for better performance instead of better visual.
Set Static IP and DNS (after trying our standard DHCP)

I have all the windows updates installed and defragmented the Hard Disk a
few times already.

Nothing seems to help improve the situation, and I've been working on this
thing for two days now. (I even rebuilt the computer from scratch in the
hopes of solving the problem)

Please help. I'd really like to move towards XP on our network, but problems
likes this are unacceptable in our environment.

Thanks,
Sam

 

[Kerry Brown]

I finally decided to use XP on our network figuring "it's time" to start
moving away from Windows 2000. We have about 30 computers with Windows 2000
and to this date, they all work flawlessly.

This is a new computer, Pentium 4, 3.0Ghz, 512MB ram, GIG card, 128MB
video... etc.

Everything seems to work fine locally, and items such as Internet, email,
downloads etc seems to be proportionally fast as the computer is
configured. (meaning it seems as if the NIC is OK)

HOWEVER, when I access folders across our local network, it seems to take
extra long (like 10-15 seconds) to show the files within the folders, and
even after they file icons show up, Windows Explorer sometimes will freeze
for about 10 seconds as well. Even some of our old Pentium II 450MHZ
computers (yes we still have a few of those), will regenerate the files
over the network almost instantly.

I've tried the following:

Turned Firewall off
Set everything to Windows Classic
Change the Display settings for better performance instead of better
visual.
Set Static IP and DNS (after trying our standard DHCP)

I have all the windows updates installed and defragmented the Hard Disk a
few times already.

Nothing seems to help improve the situation, and I've been working on this
thing for two days now. (I even rebuilt the computer from scratch in the
hopes of solving the problem)

Please help. I'd really like to move towards XP on our network, but
problems likes this are unacceptable in our environment.

Thanks,
Sam

I'd be very interested if you find a fix. How many files are in the folder?
I have a similar problem with a share on a Windows 2000 Pro box. It's a
small network. They use one application that stores all it's data files in
one folder. Over the course of year there can be as many as 2,000 files.
Win98 clients can open the folder almost instantly. WinXP clients can take
as long as 5 minutes depending on how many files are in the folder. I've
tried everything I can think of, using mapped drives, UNC names, IP address
etc. it doesn't seem to matter. Even if I move the folder to a local drive
there is a noticeable slowdown opening the folder as the number of files
grows. It seems that XP doesn't display anything until it is finished
parsing the file names. Older clients display as soon as the have enough
info to fill the screen and continue parsing the folder in the background.
This is the only explanation I've heard that makes any sense but I don't
know if that is indeed the cause. I've looked everywhere for registry or
other settings to change this behaviour but so far no luck.

Kerry

 

[Guest]

So would I - Im experienceing the same problem with only 2-3 computers

 

[Sam Manzella]

Well you guys are no help so far... LOL

I hope someone can really help us with this.

Kerry: The files in the folders over the network vary. Even folders
containing as few as 10 files have the same problem, which is why I'm
completely disgusted with this...

 

[Sam Manzella]

Well, I'm onto day three with this project. I just tried a different Network
card hoping that would be it, but still no improvement.

I also noticed that my Roaming Profile no longer updates on the server when
shutting down or logging off... I even deleted my profile, and started with
a clean new one.

I can for sure say at this point that I will NOT be suggesting to my boss
that we buy upgrades to XP for all our other workstations...

So far XP is fine on my standalone laptop. Network/Domain scenario, is
really pizzing me off.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Well, I'm onto day three with this project. I just tried a different
Network card hoping that would be it, but still no improvement.

I also noticed that my Roaming Profile no longer updates on the server
when shutting down or logging off... I even deleted my profile, and
started with a clean new one.

I can for sure say at this point that I will NOT be suggesting to my boss
that we buy upgrades to XP for all our other workstations...

So far XP is fine on my standalone laptop. Network/Domain scenario, is
really pizzing me off.

Sam

Sounds like you have a different problem from mine. What is the NETBIOS
setting on the XP workstation? How are you accessing the share? Do you use a
mapped drive? If you run \\server_name\share_name does it access the share
faster? Are you using a local DNS server for the domain? Do you have a WINS
server?

Kerry

 

[Sam Manzella]

Keith, Thanks for the pointers. I just tried playing around with the NETBIOS
settings, and there was no change. I do not have WINS configured on the
Server (Do I need to?? Nothing older than Windows 2000 here)

I use Mapped drives, but as a test, I tried accessing the folders directly
trough the servername/sharename, and that still did not make a
difference....

HOWEVER, I've narrowed the problem down to the folders that contain AutoCAD
files. If I try and open a folder with AutoCAD files, even if it only has 4
files in it, it will take about 5-10 seconds to open.

IF the folder contains Word, PDF, or any other file such as BMP, JPG, etc
the files will show up almost immediately... even if there are hundreds of
files in there???

What the heck?

I'm running latest patches for that software too. The Files icons are
probably no more complex looking than a word document.

Doesn't make sense to me, but that is what's happening....

Can anyone make sense out of this?

 

[Kerry Brown]

Keith, Thanks for the pointers. I just tried playing around with the
NETBIOS settings, and there was no change. I do not have WINS configured
on the Server (Do I need to?? Nothing older than Windows 2000 here)

I use Mapped drives, but as a test, I tried accessing the folders directly
trough the servername/sharename, and that still did not make a
difference....

HOWEVER, I've narrowed the problem down to the folders that contain
AutoCAD files. If I try and open a folder with AutoCAD files, even if it
only has 4 files in it, it will take about 5-10 seconds to open.

IF the folder contains Word, PDF, or any other file such as BMP, JPG, etc
the files will show up almost immediately... even if there are hundreds of
files in there???

What the heck?

I'm running latest patches for that software too. The Files icons are
probably no more complex looking than a word document.

Doesn't make sense to me, but that is what's happening....

Can anyone make sense out of this?

See if anything at the following links apply.

http://www.ss64.com/nt/slow_browsing.html

http://www.sbslinks.com/TipsWindowsXPi.htm

Kerry

 

[Sam Manzella]

Kerry, thanks again for the help. I posted this same question at an Autodesk
newsgroup, and someone there isolated the problem.

Turns out that there is a "Verify Digital Signature" switch on .DWG file
types that is on by default, and in my case, I needed to turn it off (this
feature is accessed when you right click on the file from within Windows
Explorer).

Basically what the switch does is that if you have a digitally signed .DWG
file, it would display a slightly different icon. Even though I wasn't
dealing with digitally signed files in this particular case, the switch
still checks the files causing the slowdown.

Go figure... I was about to throw this computer out the window (that is, if
I had a window...)

Thanks again,
Sam

 

[Kerry Brown]

Kerry, thanks again for the help. I posted this same question at an
Autodesk newsgroup, and someone there isolated the problem.

Turns out that there is a "Verify Digital Signature" switch on .DWG file
types that is on by default, and in my case, I needed to turn it off (this
feature is accessed when you right click on the file from within Windows
Explorer).

Basically what the switch does is that if you have a digitally signed .DWG
file, it would display a slightly different icon. Even though I wasn't
dealing with digitally signed files in this particular case, the switch
still checks the files causing the slowdown.

Go figure... I was about to throw this computer out the window (that is,
if I had a window...)

Thanks again,
Sam

Glad you got it fixed. Thanks for the update.

Kerry

 

[Bill Drake]

Keith, Thanks for the pointers. I just tried playing around with the
NETBIOS settings, and there was no change. I do not have WINS
configured on the Server (Do I need to?? Nothing older than Windows
2000 here)
I use Mapped drives, but as a test, I tried accessing the folders
directly trough the servername/sharename, and that still did not make
a difference....

HOWEVER, I've narrowed the problem down to the folders that contain
AutoCAD files. If I try and open a folder with AutoCAD files, even if
it only has 4 files in it, it will take about 5-10 seconds to open.

IF the folder contains Word, PDF, or any other file such as BMP, JPG,
etc the files will show up almost immediately... even if there are
hundreds of files in there???

What the heck?

I'm running latest patches for that software too. The Files icons are
probably no more complex looking than a word document.

Doesn't make sense to me, but that is what's happening....

Can anyone make sense out of this?

Hi, Sam. Possible fix as quoted below:


-----------------------------begin readme.txt-------------------------

WINDOWS XP AVI FIX V1.00
========================
Author : Joseph Cox
Website : http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk
Forum : http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/forum
Released: 31th July, 2004.

PREFACE
-------
This program, minus About window, has been sitting
on my harddrive for months and I thought it was
about time to get it released. I added the About window,
cleaned-up a few loose ends and et voilá - here we are.


PURPOSE
-------
Windows XP AVI Fix was created to help alleviate the
problem a lot of XP users have: selecting an .avi file
in Explorer causes Explorer to lock that file while it
attempts to extract video and audio summary information
from it. While doing this, the file is completely locked
and cannot be renamed, moved, or deleted.

On big .avi files, this lock can last for minutes.

Please note: Once this fix has been applied, the information
normally present in the Summary tab in the File Properties
dialog (right-click on .avi file, select Properties, and then
the Summary tab) will not be available.

To get it back, simply run Windows XP AVI Fix again and
select Restore. Hit Start and (possibly) restart your PC.


TROUBLE-SHOOTING
----------------
If you get an error when you start the program (about a file missing
or whatever), then you will need to download the VB Runtimes pack:
http://www.tnk-bootblock.co.uk/?id=vbruntimes


Joseph Cox
(AKA BootBlock)



HISTORY
-------
v1.01 - 30th September, 2004.
- Small interface update.

v1.00 - 31th July, 2004.
- Initial release.


-------------------------------end readme.txt-------------------------


Comments:

Am I sure this will fix your problem? No. However, the
slow display of certain filetypes while other filetypes display
with normal speed is usually caused by the abovementioned
issue or a similar variant.

You may also wish to check with the AutoCAD people to see
if they are aware of anything like this with their file format. It
may be possible for AutoCAD support to offer a fix.

Note: If your AutoCAD files have video-walkthrough in them...



Best I can do for now. <tm>


Bill

 

[Sam Manzella]

Thanks Bill, I actually solved the problem by turning off the Digital
Signature feature (icon feature). I put the explanation a few replies up
from this one.

Thanks again, I will keep this last info you just gave me for future
reference.

Sam

 

[sky2005]

Slow Network Access with XPPro SP2

Hi all,

I have a similar problem.
I am running a Win2003 Server, with Active Directory, and networked shares on the server.
The File server is also the DNS server for the domain.
All the clients are Windows XP machines, with at least Service Pack 1, plus all updates from WUPD.

What happened is that after installing Service Pack 2, some machines started to experience slow downs when opening network shares on the server.
Normally, the folder would open 1 to 2 seconds after double clicking it, but now, the access times are really slow (10-30 seconds)
This only happens to about 5 machines, out of 40 that we have. The rest have no problems accessing the shares whatsoever.

The strange thing is that the opening times vary, according to how you open the network share.

Writing the path in the address bar, pressing enter: 2-4 seconds
Double clicking mapped drive: 5-10 seconds
Writing the partial path in the address bar, then double clicking on a folder under that path: 15-30 seconds

The workstations are all connected through 100Mb Duplex switches to the server. The machines affected are connected to the same switches that other machines that are not experiencing the problem are connected to, so the network equipment doesn't seem to be a cause of the problem.

I have installed all updates available (Microsoft, Java, Drivers, etc)
I have checked a lot of forums, and the answer seems to be the same in all of them:
Microsoft forums: Solution: Updates, and install SP2 (SP2 caused the problem in the first place)
Other forums: Various suggestions, including Nº files in share, network drivers, and settings for Verify Digital signatures, Simple file sharing, firewall etc etc etc functionalities.

I have tried all of the suggestions given, but the problem still occurs.

I would be really grateful if anyone has any idea on how to solve this problem. (Not only me… because it seems that there are a lot of people suffering from the same problem out there on the net, but noone has found a working solution yet)